Research School Network: Privacy notices

Privacy notices


About us

The Research School Network (RSN) is set up and managed by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF).

The EEF is an independent charity dedicated to breaking the link between family income and educational achievement. They do this by supporting schools and early years settings to improve teaching and learning through better use of research evidence to inform the decisions they make. The RSN is an integral part of this mission by leading the way in the use of evidence-based practice. Through the network, Research Schools share what they know about putting research into practice, and support schools in their region to make better use of evidence to inform their teaching and learning so that they really make a difference in the classroom.

Research Schools share personal data with the EEF to help fulfil the above purposes. Examples of this include: sharing attendee lists for events, sharing videos for training purposes and also storing contacts or consent in MailChimp or Google accounts which are managed by EEF. For further information about how EEF use personal data please see the information below. 

This privacy notice

Data protection laws require us to provide you with information about how we will use your personal data. This notice is layered, so that you can easily select the reason we process your personal information from the list below and see what we do with it. This page provides information that we need to tell everyone.

Any data we hold is collected, stored and processed by our funders, the EEF. This privacy notice should be read in conjunction with the EEF’s Privacy Notices for more information on how they process data. If you give data to one of our Research Schools, please contact them directly to find out about their Privacy Policies. They may then share your information with us to meet the purposes described in these RSN Privacy Notices and the EEF Privacy Notices.

Reasons why we collect and use your personal data

For further details of how your data is used, relevant to the circumstances in which you have engaged with the RSN, please click on the relevant link below.

Contact details

EEF’s Data Protection Officer is Alan Martin who can be contacted via dpo@eefoundation.​org.​uk.

How long we will use your personal data

We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.


This may include retaining data after you have made an opt-out or similar request to ensure that you are not subsequently sent information by mistake and to protect against, for example, malicious attempts to add you to lists you do not wish to be a member of.


To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

Details of how long your data will be retained are detailed in the relevant privacy notices linked above.

Data security

We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

Third-party links

This website includes links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for how they use your personal information. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

Data processors

We use Microsoft Office as a third party to process your data in all our work. Please refer to its privacy notice, available here, for further details.

We use Zoom to host and record meetings. Please refer to its privacy notice, available here, for further details.

The RSN website, including all data provided by users through it, is managed by a third party, Percipio. Please refer to its privacy notice, available here, for further details.

Data processors specific to how you have engaged with the RSN are detailed in the relevant privacy notices linked above.

Your rights

Under data protection law, you have rights we need to make you aware of. The rights available to you depend on our reason for processing your information.

If you wish to exercise any of these rights – all seven are listed below – please contact the relevant Research School or contact the EEF’s Head of Finance and Operations. Their procedure for responding to your request is outlined here.

You are not normally required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.

We have one month to respond to you under normal circumstances, though this may be extended if your request is particularly complex.

More information about rights can be found on the ICO website.

Your right of access

You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information. This right always applies. There are some exemptions, which means you may not always receive all the information we process.

Your right to rectification

You have the right to ask us to rectify information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete. This right always applies.

Your right to erasure

You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to restriction of processing

You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your information in certain circumstances.

Your right to object to processing

You have the right to object to processing if we are able to process your information because the process forms part of our public tasks, or is in our legitimate interests. 

Your right to data portability

This only applies to information you have given us. You have the right to ask that we transfer the information you gave us from one organisation to another, or give it to you. The right only applies if we are processing information based on your consent or under, or in talks about entering into a contract and the processing is automated.

Your right to complain

You have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues (www.ico.org.uk). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.

* This page was updated on 24 March 2023.

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